NORFOLK – Artificial Intelligence (AI) has catapulted itself into the limelight with many praising the innovation, but AI data servers have been exposed as guzzling our most precious resource, water.
The days of families having clunky computers in their houses are long gone, with most people forgetting that having the ability to connect with technology does have a price. Now that technology has slimmed down to fit in the pocket of the owner, the need for data centers has skyrocketed.
Data centers are buildings that house physical servers that hold information to power apps and AI language models. The primary use of data centers is so that cellular phones and personal computers can be more portable and easier to operate.
The problems that have been raised with these AI data centers have been the abundant use of energy required to power them and the importance of fresh water to cool the servers, so they can avoid overheating.
A 2024 study conducted by The University of California–Riverside revealed how profound the use of water in cooling the AI model Chat GPT-3 and 4 is. The study found that Microsoft used 700,000 liters (about 184,920.4 gallons) of freshwater during GPT-3’s development in its data centers.
Note that the data displayed about water usage relies partly on geographic information. The Guardian explained in a publication titled: “As the AI industry booms, what toll will it take on the environment?”
“The actual number of liters used could vary significantly based on where and when exactly GPT-3 was trained – in searing Arizona, lots of water would be needed to keep servers from overheating, whereas in Wyoming, a center might use less water,” The Guardian reported.
Even though the Chat GPT’s recent versions are trained and have gone through development, basic interactions with users still amount to substantial amounts of water use.
The same study conducted by The University of California-Riverside found that a “20-50 question conversation with the AI, is equivalent to 500ml (about 16.91 oz) of water being used.”
The amount of water used by these tasks may not seem alarming, but in a press release, published by Chat GPT’s creator, Sam Altman, it was reported that Chat GPT has 300 million users that access the software weekly. The water footprint of Chat GPT is alarming considering its millions of users.
Sasha Luccioni, the climate lead for the AI company Hugging Face, explained in a published study how the use of AI is questionable concerning the environment.
“This exponential use of AI brings with it the need for more and more energy,” said Luccioni, “yet we’re seeing this shift of people using generative AI models just because they feel like they should, without sustainability being taken into account.”
With AI still being new, ideas on how to lessen the impact of frivolous water usage are still sparse with data centers.
One solution is a standout but might be impossible. Users of Chat GPT are urged to be wise with their use of the AI model, aiming to only use it when necessary to lessen the use of water needed to control the model.